Added For The Alumni Meeting, June 29,1869

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Title:     Added For The Alumni Meeting, June 29,1869
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes [More Titles by Holmes]

So the gray Boatswain of 'Twenty-nine
Piped to "The Boys" as they crossed the line;
Round the cabin sat thirty guests,
Babes of the nurse with a thousand breasts.

There were the judges, grave and grand,
Flanked by the priests on either hand;
There was the lord of wealth untold,
And the dear good fellow in broadcloth old.

Thirty men, from twenty towns,
Sires and grandsires with silvered crowns,--
Thirty school-boys all in a row,--
Bens and Georges and Bill and Joe.

In thirty goblets the wine was poured,
But threescore gathered around the board,--
For lo! at the side of every chair
A shadow hovered--we all were there!

[The end]
Oliver Wendell Holmes's poem: Added For The Alumni Meeting, June 29,1869

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